Science & Tech

August 27, 2015

UCSB Researcher Receives NASA Grant for Space Research on Interstellar Travel

By Kaitlin Cuskey

UC Santa Barbara physics professor, Phillip Lubin, and his team from UCSB’s Experimental Cosmology Group have been awarded one of 15 proof-of-concept grants from NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts to further develop the...

August 13, 2015

UCSB Professor Announced as NFL Sponsored Grant Recipient

By Erendira Garcia

Imagine awaking in an emergency room. A doctor assures that you have suffered a mild concussion from an early morning bike crash, and that you’ll be back attending class in no time. But a week or two later, you discove...

August 9, 2015

Scientists Get Nosy About the Sense of Smell

By Karla Bernardo

Often times, children pinch their noses when eating brussel sprouts — or any other type of food deemed unpleasant — to mitigate the terrible taste because the sense of taste is dependent on the sense of smell. The ol...

July 19, 2015

Study Confirms Connection Between Synapses and Memory Storage

By Erendira Garcia

Scientists at Stanford’s Bio-X Center have proven that memories last as long as the synapses that store them. Until now, this concept has been a long-standing unproven theory in the scientific community. The team of St...

July 2, 2015

Chasing the Solar Revolution

By Erendira Garcia

Scientists and environmentalists have been hopeful of a “solar revolution” in the near future where all electricity will be powered by the sun’s energy. The concept of solar energy has proved to be cost-effective, ...

June 25, 2015

Gut Bacteria’s Influence on Your Brain

By Kendra Witt

A new study from Caltech discovers a spore-forming member of the gut microbiota that regulates serotonin biosynthesis.

May 29, 2015

Student Resources Building Goes For The Gold

By Cora Kammeyer, Charlie Hua, Dylan Ruan

UCSB is growing a reputation in its sustainable practices, recently being named by the Princeton Review as the third-greenest campus in the country. This recognition, however, is not being made without proper measure: Th...

May 28, 2015

UCSB Saves Half A Billion Gallons of Water Through Recycled Water Efforts

By Priyanka Shindgikar

Many students wonder: as one of the “Top 50 Green Schools” with a commitment to environmental sustainability and conservation, how is UCSB still able to maintain lush green lawns amidst the grueling California drough...

May 28, 2015

Supernova Collision May Reveal Its Origin

By Stephanie Pernett

Decades ago, Type Ia Supernovae, or “standard candlelight’s,” as their known, have lent to significant advancements in cosmology, providing scientists with a marker with which to estimate the age and chart the expa...

May 21, 2015

Coffee Addicts Rejoice

By Erendira Garcia

I invite you to question a friend who has recently acquired a coffee habit: chances are they will speak of their consumption with a tone of culpability, admitting a need to cut down as soon as finals are over. This is a ...

May 21, 2015

Memristor Technology Brings Us One Step Closer to a Robotic World

By Karla Bernardo

The dawn of free-thinking robots may soon be upon us. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Stony Brook University have developed an artificial neural circuit that emulates the electrical design of the brain’s synapses w...

May 14, 2015

Ecstasy: What It is Doing to Your Brain

By Karla Bernardo

In the past few years, the rate of people in the United States using some form of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) — better known as Ecstasy or Molly — has skyrocketed. Psychiatrists have begun to examine the psy...

May 14, 2015

Project 8 Scientists Detect Frequency of Radiation for Individual Electron

By Karla Bernardo

A team of 27 scientists from six American and German institutions has, for the first time, achieved the task of detecting the frequency of radiation of a lone, orbiting electron. The group’s research, known informally ...

May 7, 2015

Michael Pollan: Sustainable Living for Personal and Environmental Health

By Kendra Witt

Last week, UCSB students and Santa Barbara residents joined in conversation with Michael Pollan, one of the leading voices on the relationship between food and western society, at the Granada Theater on Thursday April 30...

April 30, 2015

Quick Hacks to Speed Up Your Slow MacBook

By Danny Luo

A slow, aging MacBook makes any task that much more difficult, especially if you have an important deadline right around the corner. And instead of enjoying a relaxing evening with Netflix, most of your precious time is ...

April 30, 2015

The Biological Value of Silver Nanoparticles

By Karla Bernardo

Materialistically, society perceives the element silver second only to gold, however silver wins the favor of engineers, who take advantage of its unique conduction properties of heat and electrical current. A group of U...